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Home Nature- Study Course. 



means of prolific motherhood that the plant battahons are maintained. 

 The different methods of motherhood comport with the habits of Hfe 

 and environment of the plants and vary as widely as those of hens and 

 ducks. We have cold-loving plants, corresponding to the polar bear, 



and warmth-loving plants, 

 corresponding to the monkey. 

 We have the sedges that 

 thrive in wet places, like the 

 beaver ; the cactus that is 

 must comfortable when lo- 

 cated in a desert, as are the 

 lizards. There are social 

 cliques among the plants as 

 exclusive as are the people 

 who live on the avenue. 

 Each plant clings tenaciously 

 to life and by its own pe- 

 culiar method of motherhood 

 propagates its family, and 

 tries to exclude all rival 



A boy's laboratory. Testing for starch vi'itJi 

 iodine. 



plants. I may say that the motherhood is aggressive, — it has to be or 

 lose ground. Other plants having aggressiveness leave no place for the 

 plant of shiftless and half-hearted purpose. 



In the thrifty soil of my well tilled meadow there is no place for 

 white daisies. Later, when the constitution of the grass becomes im- 

 paired and its luxuriousness declines, leaving patches of bare soil, the 

 daisy finds its opportunity to get a foothold. As the grass continues to 

 decline, the population of the daisy increases. It is commonly said that 

 the weeds " run out the grass," but such is a mistaken idea. When by 

 reason of declining vitality the grass vacates the sod, the weeds come in 

 as new tenants. If I invigorate my meadow by tillage and fertilizers 

 the daisy will disappear and the grass be the sole possessor. 



Understand, please, that there is competition among different kinds 

 of plants just as there is in the business world to secure trade. 



LESSON LXXXVI. 



Purpose. — To let the pupil see that one of the ways that weeds take 

 possession of the land is through this instinct of motherhood, i. e., 

 scattering many seeds. 



Observation lesson. — In the garden we plant our seeds in rows, yet 

 more plants appear between the rows than in them. All these between 

 the rows were planted by the mother weeds of last year. 



